OK, JR, if you insist. Strange night for Sheamus. I continue to loathe anything that involves him talkin' and makin' wisecracks. And I don't particularly think the idea of having your probable #1 PPV tag contenders get knocked out by one guy in one move, though that just may be a function of hating what the Brogue Kick represents as far as the "Sheamus: Because You Don't Get Enough John Cena Already" character goes.

But! I thought it was pretty cool and important to give Sandow as much as they did there, very unexpected. And I have zero problems - less than that, really, I actually like the guy when he's not having 18 second matches - with Sheamus when he wrestles competitive matches. He's a guy who should, at his nature, be all about foitin' people, so it's good when they have him foit' people. And again, the fact that he looks like a mess after any match makes the match seem better and makes him look about ten times tougher than any of his squashes do. If anybody would benefit from a little blood now and again (and especially at Hell In A Cell, since I have to assume they can't do any gimmicked cage spots since the WHC match will go on earlier in the card), it'd be Sheamus. I hope they can eventually course correct back to this version of his character some day.

The continued idea that Punk's impressively long title reign and multiple wins over Cena over the span of more than a year are meaningless isn't getting any better. It's so strange to have all the faces so blatantly wrong on a single, major idea like this. It might work with last summer's Punk, but not "literally wearing devil make-up and making fun of local sports team" Punk. It's hard not to sympathize with a character who essentially has the bar moved on him every time he accomplishes something.

As much as I dislike why and how they're doing Heel Punk, I'll say again that I love how he does it. There's just a slight change in visual presentation that makes him different than Voice of the Voiceless Punk that's still not at all like SES Punk, which is neat. And I honestly would watch a half hour a week of Punk just walking to the ring and interacting with fans. I couldn't quite make out what he said to the fans in the front row when he went down to meet JR, but I think he actually cracked himself up. And that little ducking-around-the-ringpost to peek at JR thing he did going up the steps made me laugh.

I like the advancement on Punk/Ryback. Last week, when first seeing him, he played it as being scared shitless. This week, his reaction changed to defiant but still having no interest in taking Ryback on face-to-face (and Heyman is great as his excuse to leave in these kinds of situations). If they want to, they can string this out for a while until Punk eventually pearl harbors him and probably get a pretty great return from the crowd when Ryback finally gets to hit back.

Originally posted by Lord of the ManorThe worst part is, they've muddied the water so badly with Bryan's position that I have no idea if he's a face or a hell any longer. The problem with that is that his proper face turn could have been huge and this pairing has totally nullified that possibility.

I'd say Bryan is a face now, it's just that he (the character) neither realizes nor accepts it yet. Which is a fine way to turn back from his initial swing of being a face who became a heel without realizing or accepting that in the first place. But I guess we'll know for sure how they actually view the two of them depending on who faces them at Hell In A Cell. Unless they go with Hell No vs. Rhodes Scholars vs. I Got Confused How Cara's HalfMask Looked More Like Rey's Mask Than Rey's HalfMask Looked Like Rey's Mask.

There's a lot of positive things that can be taken away from this RAW:

-the Slater/Mahal/McIntyre stable-a big focus on the tag team division-the continued establishment of a good heel (Cesaro)-the idea of a main event face not named Cena or Orton (Ryback) & the slow burn they're showing by having him just stare down with Punk.

Nice rub given to Ziggler in the opening segment. He was in there with some professional mic workers. Unfortunately, he didn't hold up. As someone who is compared to Perfect every week, he does not seem to have the ability to go toe-to-toe with good talkers, yet. His body language when he talks, he almost shrinks down before he speaks, does not promote his persona of The Show-Off. I think he will get there, he just needs more reps in those types of situations. Also, I'm coming around to the idea that Vickie is becoming more of a hindrance to his progression rather than helping it.

Heyman is so far above and beyond what anyone else can do on the mic that it isn't fair.

Bryan twisting his mustache was phenomenal. And he does have a great beard.

Originally posted by Dr UnlikelyThe continued idea that Punk's impressively long title reign and multiple wins over Cena over the span of more than a year are meaningless isn't getting any better. It's so strange to have all the faces so blatantly wrong on a single, major idea like this. It might work with last summer's Punk, but not "literally wearing devil make-up and making fun of local sports team" Punk. It's hard not to sympathize with a character who essentially has the bar moved on him every time he accomplishes something.

Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't given Punk this angle to go with. "Every time I reach the finish line, somebody moves it for me. First you say Beat Me And Get Respect -- been there, done that. Then it was Walk Into Boston ... did that, too. Now I have to win at HIAC? What's gonna happen after I kick your ass there, hmm? Are you going to say that in order to earn your respect I have to beat you in a danceoff?"

This woulda been perfect with Piper, actually. Turn the "every time you figure out the answers, I change the questions" line around.

This is a THREE hour show - I really don't understand their concept of time management, whether it's inexplicably cutting all the match entrances, or SHOWING all the entrances only to immediately go to ad break as soon as the action starts - surely there are better ways to pace this show.

I love that Rodriguez used pronouns so often they eventually just stopped bothering to try to correct his behaviour.

Do you think the WWE Universe will ever figure out that when they tweet and Tout in real time in futile efforts to be a part of the show, the dudes in the truck have already preloaded a tweet from hours ago and have the Tout recorded by The Talent standing by?

I didn't read any of Larry King's tweets but I hope my imitation of him matched at least once. (Also, in retrospect I was apparently bored enough during this show to attempt tweeting like Larry King.)

Is one long match all it takes in 2012? Do people now take Sandow seriously? I would love if that's all it took but I...feel skeptical.

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but didn't The Ryback have no trouble hoisting Tensai just last Friday on Smackdown? Could Tensai have gained THAT much weight between last Tuesday and yesterday? (Wait...could he have eaten Sakamoto? I haven't seen THAT dude in a while either!) And yes, I know Smackdown is taped and they would have been able to edit out anything that happened like it did last night, but I feel like I didn't hear any reports about stuff having to have been edited out - did you?

This is a THREE hour show - I really don't understand their concept of time management, whether it's inexplicably cutting all the match entrances, or SHOWING all the entrances only to immediately go to ad break as soon as the action starts - surely there are better ways to pace this show.

The Meltzer story on this is the opening segment went way long, and they were panic cutting time the rest of the show.

Originally posted by CRZMaybe I'm remembering it wrong, but didn't The Ryback have no trouble hoisting Tensai just last Friday on Smackdown? Could Tensai have gained THAT much weight between last Tuesday and yesterday? (Wait...could he have eaten Sakamoto? I haven't seen THAT dude in a while either!) And yes, I know Smackdown is taped and they would have been able to edit out anything that happened like it did last night, but I feel like I didn't hear any reports about stuff having to have been edited out - did you?

I watched that part a few times to make out what RyBack shouts at Tensai after he drops him the last time. Looked like "STUPID!" to me. Reminded me of how Randy Orton reacts when his opponents botch spots or miss cues. Miz and Kofi come to mind.

The Ryback was indeed yelling "Stupid!", but you're also reading too much into it. That's just something he does in his matches. Back when he was fighting jobbers, when they actually tried offense against him he'd yell that they were stupid after cutting them off and crushing them. It's just an in-ring mannerism, nothing more than that.

I imagine it's a bit harder to lift someone torture rack style than it is in a normal fireman's carry. Tensai is a big guy to heft up like that, I don't know that either of them are to blame for it not working out. That's just how it goes sometimes. It's just unfortunate that it happens to The Ryback on the same show that Antonio Cesaro lifted and held Brodus Clay up for a while in the Neutralizer.

Originally posted by Tenken347I am nearly 100% certain that Chistopher J. Stephenson was a dig at someone on Linda's campaign staff. It's the sort of childish nonsense I've come to expect from Vince whenever anyone implies that there's a job that could be done better.

Maybe that was as close as he felt WWE should get to taking shots at Linda McMahon's opponent in the CT Senate campaign: Christopher S. Murphy.

Cesaro abruptly going from guy on the roster to featured heel has been a pleasant surprise. I guess it makes sense as part of the Year WWE Realized The Indy Guys Were Better Than Theirs.

I'm more excited about the Encore group than you can imagine. I don't know how you could see anything about it that's not great. Except maybe that Jinder's in it instead of someone good like Hunico, but I bet his distinctiveness will make for an amusing contrast.

Originally posted by FeelyEnCorre

I don't think they got Christopher J. Stephenson from the same catalogue as Dr. Shelby.

I went back and watched the Ryback vs. Tensai match. The fear I had when he started debuting that running Samoan Drop seems to be coming to fruition. Every time I see him do the death march while holding his opponent I think "Droz incident waiting to happen".

Antonio Cesaro looked good with the Neutralizer on the Funkasaurus, effectively ending his undefeated streak. I was just complaining about Brodus, The Ryback, and Sandow all being somewhat new Superstars having undefeated streaks. Problem solved.

Speaking of Cesaro and all the ex-ROH/PWG/Dragon Gate USA guys they have in developmental. I couldn't help but think during the whole show how great it would be if instead of another drawn out talking segment how great it would be if just ONE of those guys made a run-in, had a raw debut match, or a promo aired for them. I have no idea why Vince feels like he has to wait so long to debut one of them. It's like he's running a major basketball team, drafts major college players, then leaves them on the bench every season for some unknown local street ball player and high school kids to mix with his main players.

Originally posted by superfurryCan't say I'm surprised. I find it difficult to maintain interest throughout Raw when watching it the following morning on DVR.

Agreed, and as I'm FFWDing past the parts I dont care about, I'm always amazed at how many segments fall under that category for me. I'm always pushing the "skip ahead 30 secs" button saying to myself "Damn, the show isnt over yet??"

Can't say I'm surprised. I find it difficult to maintain interest throughout Raw when watching it the following morning on DVR.

The conspiracy guy in me says its quite convenient Cena decided to stay out home while the Bears played the Cowboys in Jerry world, so when he returns he can say he popped the rating. A trick, Hogan used to do on Nitro when Raw got bumped. That said, WWE has been routinely bad in the fall of late. Last year, it was the HHH push to throw Punk under the bus, the year before was cutting of Nexus' balls. So, it should be no shock, this year, Punk gets no respect for holding the belt and constantly beating Cean while being right and the bad guy at the same time.

The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.

Uh...pretty boring show. Three hours is just brutal. I found RAW fairly unwatchable at two hours. I liked what they gave Sandow but I still think the match was overlong. Could have shaved five minutes off it and accomplished the same thing. Burgeoning tag division is also a thumbs up for me. Not sure why Team Hell No was put in there with Punk and Dolph...none of these wrestlers have any issues with each other. Oh, and Ryback makes me miss Mason Ryan.

This story actually sounds really made up. I guess someone wants to read his name on the RossReport. I think JR is still the man on play by play. He seems to put some real emotion and some humor in it that Cole never does.